A web page is made up of a number of objects including the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) of the page, the images, the CSS that defines the layout, etc. Many publishers (e.g., owners and/or operators of websites) incorporate one or more web applications (typically provided by third party application providers) into their web pages to provide additional functionality for the web pages. A web application is a piece of code (typically a script) that provides functionality to a web page. A common web application is a tracking and analytics application that generates statistics regarding the visitors of the web page.
A publisher typically has to manually insert the code of the web application into the page(s) that it desires to have that functionality. For example, in the case of a tracking and analytics application, the publisher typically adds the code for that application in several of its web pages. Web applications may periodically be updated by the web application providers (e.g., to correct an error, to provide additional functionality, to become more efficient, etc.). In order to update a web application, a publisher typically removes the code of the older web application and replaces it with the code of the newer web application. Adding and managing the web applications can become cumbersome for the customer, especially as the number of web applications increases.